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American University of Beirut

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_University_of_Beirut

The American University of Beirut (AUB); Arabic: الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت‎) is a private, secular, and independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. Degrees awarded at the American University of Beirut (AUB) are officially registered with the New York Board of Regents.

The university is ranked as the number one university in Lebanon and among the top 250 universities in the world by the QS World University Rankings.

The American University of Beirut is governed by a private, autonomous Board of Trustees and offers programs leading to Bachelor's, Master’s, MD, and PhD degrees. It collaborates with many universities around the world, notably with Columbia University, George Washington University Medical School in Washington, DC; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the University of Paris. The current president is the American epigraphist, philologist, and cultural anthropologist, Peter Dorman.

The American University of Beirut (AUB) boasts an operating budget of $300 million with an endowment of approximately $500 million. The campus is composed of 64 buildings, including the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) (420 beds), 5 libraries, 3 museums and 7 dormitories. Almost one-fifth of AUB's students attended secondary school or university outside of Lebanon before coming to AUB. AUB Graduates reside in approximately 100 countries worldwide. The language of instruction is English.

On 23 January 1862, W.M. Thomson proposed to a meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions that a college of higher learning, that would include medical training, should be established in Beirut with Daniel Bliss as its President. On April 24, 1863, while Dr. Daniel Bliss was raising money for the new college in the United States and England, the State of New York granted a charter for the Syrian Protestant College. The college, which was renamed the American University of Beirut in 1920, opened with a class of 16 students on December 3, 1866. Dr. Bliss served as its first president, from 1866 until 1902.

AUB alumni have had a broad and significant impact on the region and the world for many years. For example, 19 AUB alumni were delegates to the signing of the United Nations Charter in 1945 — more than any other university in the world. AUB graduates continue to serve in leadership positions as presidents of their countries, prime ministers, members of parliament, ambassadors, governors of central banks, presidents and deans of colleges and universities, businesspeople, engineers, doctors, teachers, and nurses. They work in governments, the private sector, and in nongovernmental organizations.

During the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) AUB pursued various means to preserve the continuity of studies, including enrollment agreements with university in the United States.

On March 21, 2008, the Board of Trustees selected Peter Dorman to be AUB's 15th president. He succeeded John Waterbury who was president of AUB from 1998 to 2008. Dorman is an international scholar in the field of Egyptology and formerly chaired the University of Chicago's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

As of June 2011, the total number of degrees and diplomas awarded totaled 82,032.